Chapter 36 · Echoes of the Forbidden City

"Don't move. Unless you want that pollution to melt your brain from the inside out."

Silas's voice vibrated right against my ear. He had me pinned. My back was slammed against the cold, jagged stone of the abyss wall. His hand clamped my wrist, locking the stolen S-rank talent—the Sovereign's Command—into a suffocating stasis.

Under my skin, the corruption pulsed like liquid fire. It wanted out. It wanted to tear me apart.

"Get off me," I spat. It came out as a wheeze.

I tried to wrench my arm away. He didn't budge. Silas was a wall of granite, smelling of ozone and old blood.

"You really are a glutton for punishment, aren't you?" He leaned in. I could feel the heat radiating off his chest, the rough fabric of his Inquisitor’s coat scraping my shoulder. "You didn't just steal a power, Alice. You put on a leash. Do you feel it? The way it's pulling?"

I looked down at Caine. The man who’d spent years trying to erase me was now a shriveled husk, gasping for air on the cavern floor. Discarded driftwood.

"I don't care about the leash," I snapped, glaring up at him.